Hi Francois,

Let me reply inline for ease.

First off, you speak French, WinDev is from a French company, it is always released in French first as the native language, there are French support forums, French newsletters, conferences, etc. All WinDev functions and coding constructs are available in French and English. So that is already a benefit for you I think.


>This strange "vfp-originated drawing application" essentially consumes csv or Excel resources with some http xml-tapping at times. I am sure that Windev would cope with that part that quite well! -

Full native support for reading/writing XLS, CSV, and XML all built-in.


> ...but can you expect it decently in the drawing arena? In other words, can one use the current Windev as a generic programmatic environment à la old-school VB? I should possibly say "vieille école" by the way.

Yes. If you can do it in VFP then absolutely you can for sure do it in WinDev and very, very likely much better. First of all, WinDev has a built-in charting library which is being enhanced all the time but already handles all popular chart formats; line, bar, pie, surface, 3D, bubble, scatter, etc. Secondly, WinDev has extensive drawing functions such as lines, circles, arrows, etc. Drawing on top of images, saving images, manipualting them, sizing them, etc.

For a list of drawing functions - http://tinyurl.com/nql6zjr

For a list if image functions - http://tinyurl.com/nwnxrdm


>In the VFP9 application I work one, these drawing operations are currently handled as a foxpro hack with via clunky mousemove, mousedown, mouseup event code. I do not like the responsiveness here nor the hack code style on the UI - and I have started to prototype a python-based alternative with a view to implement the UI part on pyqt or wx.

All mouse action functions exist in WinDev as well - http://tinyurl.com/prjpqwz


>Since this application still employs a lot of cursor operations - and massive rushmore optimization of course - I wonder whether it could make sense to run a test on Windev as well since I could possibly reuse part of the application logic instead of rewriting a significant number of algos for more academic python data structures. Rewriting an application based on massive use of cursors with more traditional data structure is certainly time-consuming!
>
>In your experience with Windev, are its local engine sql operations as speedy as the vfp9 ones? Including on non-trivial SQL calls ?

Yes, WinDev is as fast as VFP in data retrieval both from it's own built-in database (called HyperFile HFSQL) and also with 3rd party SQL databases. You might find one area slightly slower and another area slightly faster - but overall it is the same.


>Can one expect to reuse a significant part of vfp cursor-based logic in Windev?

Yes and this is the crucial part for any VFP developer: (1) the essential way you build an app in WinDev is the same as VFP - a main application, add programs, windows, tables, files, routines, functions, etc. (2) a lot of the syntax is similar e.g. FOPEN(), FSAVETEXT(), HSEEK() , HFOUND(). (3) the logic of a VFP app can virtually be duplicated side by side to a WinDev application including the structure of programs and functions and tables, etc. However, you will probably find alternate ways as you progress with conversion, I certainly did but also took the opportunity to re-work/re-design a lot of my app for better code practices and workflow.


>Trying WinDev instead of python on QT... Well my career as developer and my reputation would take a blow from such a choice :) But it has already suffered a lot anyway:)

Accept that ANY new language involves learning curve. Assume 3 months of fiddling around with WinDev to start getting familiar with it - a few hours a day. Another 3 months to feel totally comfortable with it - maybe half a day, each day. 6 months and you are up and running. This does not mean you know every command in WinDev (there are thousands) or that you know every solution to every problem. But it does mean you feel totally comfortable with building applications, creating databases, accessing data, building windows, reports, programming code, and finding functions and options in the help system, compiling to exes (32 bit/64 bit), distribution to clients, etc. I don't know everything about WinDev, far from it, but I feel as comfortable churning out WinDev code as I do VFP code (and I also don't know everything about VFP, far from it again).

Lastly, once you know the WinDev coding language (WLanguage) that same language, and style of application development iro the IDE, is used for writing websites in WebDev and building mobile applications using WinDev Mobile.

Lastly - check this website out - projects done in WinDev

http://www.zapsolution.com/DW/US/windev.html

http://www.zapsolution.com/DW/index.html